just a truth seeking before the New Year rolls in since the doomsday 12 21 2012 b.s. has been busted and the fiscal cliff is still looming and cuz folks r still going rampant and killing innocent folks left and right (even on Christmas eve – see the tragic shooting of firemen in Webster, NY ) while the NRA still justifies the producing marketing and disseminating of weapons of mass destruction

Item 1: CI Online goes Over the Line

CI Online – the blog run by two pro pro pro CI folks ran an entry attacking Toys R Us and the American Society for Deaf Children (ASDC). Never mind the fact that Toys R Us has been CI friendly via having kids with CI appear as models in their catalogs etc – the folks at Cochlear Implant Online reaffirm that Oralism is a jealous mistress and they are furious over Toys R Us giving ASDC a wee grant. Odd how they never complained about AG Bell having Cochlear Americas and Advanced Bionics as their Circle Alliance Partners accepting THOUSANDS of dollar$$$ from both companies while those companies were getting hit with fines from the FDA and the Dept of Justice for unethical dealings, fraud and faulty (spark) product. Nope not a wee word of complaint was heard from CI Online but Toys R Us giving ASDC some support for all the good work ASDC does causes CI Online to insinuate and accuse.

I left a comment over there back when the entry crossed my path and ive given them a long time to finally approve it but since its been month and since other comments got approved after mine im gonna wager that they are not interested in publishing the truths so we will just do that here.

They start with this misrepresentation: “the existence of the technology that allows deaf children to hear almost like a normal hearing person.” The data and the testimony from cochlear implant users (included Rush Limbaugh) state that CI do NOT allow Deaf folks to hear almost like a normal hearing person – nope they don’t so just lay off on the B.S. Rachel and Elizabeth, eh – otherwise ya look like u r selling snake oil. Truth and nothing but it is what the parents deserve and need

Falsehoods #1 from CI Online’s letter to Toys R Us:

“incredible technology that enables children with hearing loss full access to sound.”

Fact:

CI does not provide FULL access to sound – just go see those pix of cats with CI on their foreheads trying to train them to identify when a violin is played or see Rush Limbaugh and every other CI user I know talk truthfully about what it does enable and what it DOES NOT.

Falsehood #2:

Rachel and Elizabeth state that the ASDC misleads people via this statement from ASDC’s website: “Research consistently demonstrates that fluency in sign language and English offers deaf children (including those with cochlear implants) and hard-of-hearing children optimal opportunities for social and academic success, and thus both should be part of their language-rich environment.”

Fact:

There is NOTHING misleading about that statement – it states a fact that research has shown that fluency in a fully natural and accessible Signed Language and English does offer Deaf (wee bit to big bit and with or without devices) kids optimal opportunities for social and academic success.

Falsehood #3:

“This statement is not based in fact, and promotes only one of the many ways that parents of children with hearing loss can choose for their children to communicate.”

Fact:

The statement is fact based and does NOT promote only ONE of the many ways ie they recognize ASL, English and technology so YO YOU, AG Bell, and CI co ARE THE ONES PROMOTING ORAL/AURAL O-N-L-Y – ie AVT / LSL and Oral Only Optionless programs

Falsehood #4:

The Fourth paragraph which starts with the word: “Today, …” lists speaking and hearing, telephone, TV without CC, music, and mainstreaming.

Fact:

They do not mention that many Deaf people could speak and hear some before the advent of CI, that many folks with CI want and need CC and are even suing schools and colleges to provide them with CART and CC, that many can hear music but still not decipher the words, nor can they hold telephone conversations beyond family members or beyond them speaking primarily and the other person listening predominately. As for mainstreaming – the literacy rate for Deaf children is still low despite the HUGE increase in mainstreaming and implantation.

Falsehood #5:

“The vast majority of children with hearing loss do not know or use sign language, contrary to what the American Society for Deaf Children argues.”

Fact:

ASDC does not argue that the vast majority of children KNOW sign language – they argue that they should have the RIGHT to know sign language – just as Hearing babies are gobbling up sign language.

Falsehood #6:

“Thus, the American Society for Deaf Children, with its promotion of only one mode of communication for children with hearing loss (sign language) is both out of line with the latest research as well as out of sync with the vast majority of children with hearing loss today.”

Fact:

Already established but since we are dealing with folks who have hearing loss and selective listening skills we will repeat with caps (ie louder) ASDC DOES NOT PROMOTE ONLY ONE MODE OF COMMUMICATION.

In fact it is CI Online – Rachel and Elizabeth who are OUT OF LINE and out of sync with the facts and the truth and that which is right, just, and good. ‘Tis a pity, eh?

Why do the pro-CI anti-ASL fanatics always have to resort to lies, falsehoods, deceptions, extremism, and exclusivity. OY! so old, so old this jealous mistress of theirs.

Falsehood #7:

They go on to misrepresent by saying “There are many research studies that truly show success in children with hearing loss who learn the language through speaking and hearing with cochlear implants.”

Fact:

The studies they mention are comparing oral /aural only with total communication (sim-com speaking and signing incompletely at the same time NOT bilingual programs) and those studies are measuring speech and hearing NOT LANGUAGE.

Im a little teapot hears my spot – can you hear that black kettle a roaring? ASDC favors providing Deaf children with LANGUAGE RIGHTS – ASL and ENGLISH. That is actually a good thing. Bilingualism and multilingualism is generally desirable and beneficial.

In no way has ASDC demonstrated animosity towards CI and listening and spoken language. They do acknowledge the benefits, usefulness, justness of ASL and in CI Online’s prejudicial eyes – that constitutes animosity.

Well well well – lets take a look at who is exhibited animosity – Rachel and Elizabeth are via their letter riddled with falsehoods and attacks to Toys R Us. Oy – doing more than shaking me head over here. Im also grinning a bit. Why you ask? Well, see the next FACT

Fact:

When ya all resort to false attacks and misrepresentation it shows how scared you are and shows how unjust you are. AG Bell couldnt tolerate ASL being shown on TV one day in a wee seconds of a commercial so they wrote a letter to Pepsi crying (just ignore the fact that one of the actor has a CI and does do all that listening and speaking stuff but *gasp* he showed ASL and Deaf culture in a witty way – call out the Oral Aural ONLY police) to which Pepsi said – WHATEVER!

And Toys R Us gives ASDC a wee grant award and Cochlear Implant Online goes on the warpath.

Really – lets talk about animosity shall we? and lets remember our history which AG Bell and others so much want us to forget and lets remember and REALIZE that the history is still being enacted EVERYDAY all over the US of A. they making Tony Perkins look tame eh? There has been a vicious campaign against ASL in America and AG Bell and co. have been the primary proponents of it – ask yourself WHY? Why would they go to such length to forbid ASL on the fingers of the wee things folks? its an important question

The Blue Scare (blue as in blue ribbon, blue tape and AFA is the anti-christ wow wee ya all need to get out more) Ya Hoo – yes CI Online is engaging in a wee bit of fear mongering aint they?

AFA ADVOCATES for ANSWERS. Ever wonder why its so hard to get the FACTS re: CI safety, effectiveness, and reliability? AFA has called for an impartial and independent investigation into CI safety and it has demanded that AG Bell STOP excluding ASL from the lives of Deaf children and their families. AG Bell’s AVT / LSL programming promotes an exclusionary, extremist, and unjust doctrine of Oral / Aural Only and that is what AFA protests.

Free speech! ya hoo – AFAers have the right to assembly, press, petition, and speech and we use it well and AFA is made up of folks au naturale, folks who have CI, folks who had CI, folks who are native ASLers, native speakers, folks who are newbies, folks who are survivors of Oralism, and more. Exercising our independence we be! AmeriCANs

Fact is if you read the AFA letter to Dr. Niparko you will see an act of community accountability you can be proud of and impressed by (and no, while i am involved with AFA & am one of the signatories i did not write that letter ; ) – there is no expression of hatred towards cochlear implants. In fact if we are to assess any hate, we can see it coming full throttle from the Cochlear Implant Online authors – Rachel and Elizabeth and the anti-ASL, anti-Deaf folks. Truths hurts it seems. And pls do read the letter – it is just, right, and good http://audismfreeamerica.blogspot.com/2012/05/afas-letter-to-director-of.html

Falsehood #11:

“The organization promotes sign language and Deaf Culture by providing a wealth of resources supporting sign language and Deaf Culture while resources for listening and spoken language and cochlear implant are clearly lacking. ASDC fails to represent all children with hearing loss and their families.”

Fact:

ASDC does have info re: listening and spoken language in their website, their magazine Endeavor, and via their support of parents etc. It is NOT lacking.

AG Bell Association, Cochlear Implant Online, Option schools, Oral Education, all those “foundations” that are associated with CI surgeons and companies are not just lacking in providing resources re: ASL & English they are hostile, prejudicial, and harmful in their zeal for their ONE WAY fits all.

Re: ASDC failing to represent all children – wow – they close their biased and unjust letter with a note to readers to copy and paste their letter and add a suggestion: we encourage you to suggest an alternative nonprofit to which Toys “R” Us could make a donation, a nonprofit that supports listening and spoken language, or more fully supports children with hearing loss without bias.

And if you all do not find that ending comical beyond belief – well i got some water to sell ya. Seriously they are just wow wee OBVIOUS!

Thankfully despite Rachel and Elizabeth sending their bogus and unjust letter to Toys R Us and encouraging others to do so, Toys R Us responded to my positive note on their FB page thanking them for donating to the very worthwhile and worthy ASDC with “Hi Patti. We are very proud to support the special needs community and ASDC.”

Item 2: McCaskill Matter

Remember the Gallaudet Chief Diversity Officer, Dr. Angela McCaskill, and her signing of the anti-gay marriage petition that put up LGBTQ civil rights on a ballot. Well the petition backfired since the people of maryland voted in FAVOR of LGBTQ marriage equality as well as other states – ya hoo. Four states reaffirmed marriage equality.

If McCaskill is thinking of suing Gallaudet as seemed to be hinted at in her unwarranted and unjust press conference – she might want to reconsider cuz appeal courts in Cinn. have sided with the University of Toledo stating it was “within its right to fire its head Human Resources administrator, Crystal Dixon, for submitting an anti-gay op-ed column to a local newspaper.”see the write up about this important case at Planet DeafQueer

Tony Perkins of the hate group, Family Research Council (FRC), used and abused video of Dr. McCaskill’s press conference to promote his anti-gay rights, homophobia and H8. Perkin’s anti-gay right’s propaganda video “Dr. Angela McCaskill Speaks Out on Bullying by Gallaudet University President” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r9M_5oQ5ho Its not captioned cuz Perkins is just using McCaskill and doesnt care if she can access his hate speech and manipulation just like he used Black churches to promote the anti-gay petition. U can turn on the auto captions but its pretty garbled “bullying” appears as “bowling” – which reminds me of how the film Bowling for Columbine reveals how fear mongering is used and abused to control the populous and we see how Tony Perkins of the anti-gay FRC tries to sell fear to no avail – all those four states he lists REAFFIRMED marriage equality (see how the SLPC has affiliated him with white Supremicist group) http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/groups/family-research-council.

Happy New Year folks – keep signing and singing those songs of freedom and 2013 is gonna be a good one. its the 100th anniversary year that Veditz gave us his priceless Preservation of Sign Language speech and many other treasures.

TED talks are generally super good short videos from the International TED Conferences – the presentations are videotaped and translated into a bunch of different languages for subtitling and usually very informative.

NOTE: Wouldn’t it be great if Dr. Laura Pettito, the Science Director and Co-Principal Investigator of the National Science Foundation and Gallaudet University’s Science of Learning Center (“Visual Language and Visual Learning, VL2“) and Dr. Peter Hauser, Deaf clinical neuropsychologist and the director of the Deaf Studies Laboratory (DSL) at NTID/RIT, hosted TEDx talks?

Biggest thanks to David Kurs and Mark Gobble and their committees for having undertaken this important task of organizing these talks, recording them and disseminating them. No need for the Deaf world to be 30 years behind now that the digital age is upon us. DJ Kurs explains that more TEDxIslay talks are in the works so keep your eyes open for more good stuff down the road.

Yes – i know there is a TEDxUSU talk by Dr. Karl White – Alison Aubrecht of Facundo Element does a mighty fine job of illuminating all his sins of omissions and misrepresenting of the truth as well as questioning his ethical choices – so feel free to check out that vlog – http://youtu.be/2UGHwF1c2aw

…we have been forced to a point where we’re going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, but the demands didn’t force them to do it. Survival demands that we grapple with them. Men, for years now, have been talking about war and peace. But now, no longer can they just talk about it.It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it’s nonviolence or nonexistence. ~ MLK Jr.

President Obama is right – we are heartbroken.

President Obama has been wrong – we all should be calling for a ban on assault weapons.

We have delayed this dangerous discussion too long enabling VERY dangerous outcomes to transpire. We are all responsible. We are all complicit in what we have done and what we have failed to do in regards to gun wrongs and gun rights in this country.

For a so-called “civilized nation” we have behaved very uncivilly. [Check out how when Australia put a ban on Assault Weapons there were no mass shootings since and check out all the restrictions on guns in various civilized nations and how low the murder rate is compared to the u.s. of a.]

Since our birth we have been a walking contradiction – priding ourselves on “the rights of man” while simultaneously holding our fellow wo/men in bondage. Waving our stars and strips while simultaneously regulating humans to the status of property and beast of burden. Heralding our land of freedom while simultaneously stripping Native AMERICANS of their sovereignty, land, valuables, resources, language, and way of life.

We have used and abused the 2nd amendment only to see it continually and literally BACKFIRE.

To the NRA – news flash

Fact 1: Guns do in FACT kill people and ASSAULT WEAPONS (ie GUNS) kill lots of people quickly.

Fact 2: children are people.

Fact 3: profit over protection is WRONG.

Fact 4: the 2nd amendment does not allow for ASSAULT weapons just as the 1st amendment does not allow for HATE SPEECH or CHILD PORNOGRAPHY just as it does not allow for POLYOGAMY.

Fact 5: your politicians’ silence can no longer be brought. the tipping point got tipped when the WHY shifted from –

why did this or that or the other killer do that horrible thing on that horrible day?

to

WHY DOES THIS COUNTRY SELL ASSAULT WEAPONS TO ITS CITIZENS?

that is just plain and simply unjust and NUTS>

Crazy

loco

u do not arm your citizens with weapons of mass destruction because:

1. even with a whole host of arsenal which many folks have amassed under the guise of being gun “enthusiast” (really?), or sportsman, or needing protection, or preparing a militia to take over our government – aint nothing all that stockpiling of killing machines is gonna do except for kill the innocent

2. the government has nuclear weapons, missiles, chemical weapons, tanks, automatic everything, drones etc etc etc so this wittle notion of the 2nd amendment rights being designed to allow the citizens to resurrect the minute men & women if it should need to do so to protect the nation from tyranny in 2012 is a joke – it is antiquated, outdated, misguided, a farce, a sheild and wrong

The 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution:A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

1791

1791 – this is back in the days when folks had to pack a musket and shoot and fire – ie SLOW. NOT rounds being ejected and high speed pow pow pow in a matter of seconds. This is when in the days of the dawn of our liberation from England when we really didn’t have a fully regimented army and we were probably worried about getting taken over again and thus needing a militia on guard. “A free state” meaning a free country not meaning each citizen should be armed to the teeth as they please so they can shoot down anything they see as a threat to their personal security.

So you see how the NRA nutters including crazy ole Clint Eastwood have used and abused the 2nd amendment for their own gain and to all of our detriment – including their own. Extremists are not the kinda folks you want to arm.

If anyone should be bearing arms for security – it probably should be the bears and other endangered species – including humans who have been hunted down and killed simply because of the color of their skin. We shouldn’t be arming the dangerous.

so the quest I am on is not WHY did this young man do this but rather WHY DOES OUR COUNTRY ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN?

WHY?

no it is not so we can form a militia – militias in this day and age are not a good thing and they stand no chance against a government.

no it is not to protect the home – you do not need an ASSAULT weapon to protect your home

no it is not for hunting – there is not sport in that via an ASSAULT weapon and there will be little edible meat due to the mass number of bullets

so no i aint a bleeding heart liberal trying to take away all the guns in the u.s.

i am an AMERICAN and i have rights too. i have the right not to be afraid to walk down the street and worry about who the heck is packing.

i have the right to bring my kids to school without worrying a nutter will be stopping by and ending our world as we know it.

i have the right to do more than just pray and hope no other family and no other community has to face the horrors of what Sandy Hook is grappling with

i have the right to fight of my nation and the true just and right principles it set forth and to ensure they are not abused and misused for other folks profits, false prophecies, or injustices

Our hearts are broken.

We are broken hearted.

Yet our hearts continue to beat. Others are not as fortunate – they have been robbed of this fundamental right of the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness because extremists have hijacked the 2nd amendment. Their hearts beat no more and they did no one any wrong. All they did was put on their wee socks, some matching some not, pick out their clothes, fuss over their breakfast, grin their toothless grins, giggle, sputter, whine, and hug and climb the steps into their school one Friday morning on a blue sky day.

That is all they did.

BAN assault weapons now. No one needs them and no one should want them.

To any house of representative and senate member – i dont care if you are a democrat, republican, or gdi – if you vote against a ban on assault weapons, you should and you shall be voted out of office.

It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it’s nonviolence or nonexistence. ~ MLK Jr

this measure is WAY OVER DUE. Too many lives have been lost. Our duty is to ensure domestic tranquility not provide weapons of mass scale destruction at the fingertips of anybody.

We are heartbroken yet our hearts still beat.

Let us find the beat within ourselves to stand up for the courage of our convictions and JUST SAY NO to ASSAULT WEAPONS. We need a war on weapons not on people. And children are people.

But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars.~ MLK Jr.

Peace, (MLK Jr defined peace not as the absence of tension but the presence of justice)

lots of good links for ya below so we can know know, see see, and do do

but before i launch into that – im still blue Betty’s gone – its just hard for me to accept.

Birth of a Deaf Woman by Betty G. Miller

Dr. Betty G. Miller, Mother of De’VIA, Deaf woman to earn a Doctor of Education in Art Education from Penn State University and an honorary degree from Gallaudet University and the GUAA Alice Cogswell Award (would Gally pls put up the video of Betty accepting the award) and numerous art shows – many of them being One Woman Show, long time partner of Nancy Creighton, teacher, scholar, counselor, recovering alcoholic, out lesbian, dear friend and much much more, is no more on this plane. My grief is thick but im so glad she existed and still does via her works and her spirit.

When our daughter learned of Betty’s passing she said –

“Mrs. Whatsit is gone?”

and i said “Yep”

and she said “Oh I’m so sorry. I wish i had a picture of her with her hat and shaw and knarly cane like when she blew in the door that one night.”

this made me laugh hard and happy cuz it gave me a mini-flashback on how back in 2008 when Betty had her one woman RETROSPECTIVE show at NTID’s Dyer Art center one evening we had a gathering of local folks at our home in honor of Betty and Nancy and when they arrived – Z pulled me aside and signed/finerspelled “is that M-R-S W-H-A-T-S-I-T?” She really did look like a character out of our favorite book, A Wrinkle in Time ,and since Mrs. Whatsit had wonderful powers I found it very fitting.

so im kinda just feeling like life is good – how it keeps sending things my way to help me celebrate the good folks. OF course i wish i had done more and i wish there would be a huge collective sigh going out but if i listen well enuf i can feel it. The folks who know and love her are sighing and the folks who are just learning of her departure are realizing we are loosing gems and founding mothers and fathers of the art of truth telling.

“You mean you’re comparing our lives to a sonnet? A strict form, but freedom within it?” “Yes.” Mrs. Whatsit said. “You’re given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself. What you say is completely up to you.”

They now have a pix campaign going – asking folks to hold up a sign with the wording of “I am an American. Recognize Amercian Sign Language” ASLfor.us They are asking folks ideas for future actions for ASL for America at http://aslfor.us/listening-campaign/ Looks like my comment is pending. Hope folks will share their POV too and click click pix with sign. Cool to see so many folks from other countries joining in to support. Cant find Jean Murphy’s Irishlady’s nice vlog of all the pix yesterday now so if anyone has it – link me. Kudos and thank you to Adrean Clark for jumping at da sun and getting so many good folks to join in. To all who signed, tweeted, fb, etc etc THANK YOU. I’ve added other testimonies folks have vlogged about what ASL means to them at: https://handeyes.wordpress.com/2012/11/21/dear-obama-vlogs-and-petition-in-support-of-asl/ scroll down for the testimonies

this is an important campaign because many disenfranchised groups assert themselves by indicating that while they are “different” from the majority or the folks in power they are still Americans and want that promise of “all folks being created equal” to apply to them. so keep standing folks and maybe read I, Too, Sing America by Harlem Renassiance poet, Langston Hughes. Love this poem and poet and see De’VIA artist, Susan Dupor’s Deaf American painting. Love this painter and educator.

– UN CRPD – all i got to say is the republicans who voted nay deserve the WTF award. Seriously taking all my power not to don a wig and sign out about that bonkiness. No worries they gonna bring it back to the floor and the lies r gonna be brought out to the light of day to kill off that b.s. the UN CRPD has NO risk to US sovereignty, pushing mercy killing, awarding too many HC parking spots at fundalmentalist churhes, or promoting abortion. If the Republican congress folks are so worried about sovereignty they should rectify what we done and are doing to Native people’s sovereignty.

– The Planet – YIKES> the mother is screaming! wake up folks wake up. The Mayan prediction was probably – geez u all r gonna be mistreating the mother mighty bad and she gonna have to set u straight. Saddest thing about our destruction of the planet is the folks who are gonna be affected the worst by it at first are the ones we seldom listen to – plants, animals, indigenous people, poor people. It’s horrible folks. And guess who caused this mess WE (We the people of the planet) are in? mostly corporations and their GREED. Resist folks. try to live more simply. and CARE about others. To the Tar Sand and the no fracking fighters thank u – most especially the hunger strikers. You are in my thoughts. To the victims of the typhoon Bopha in the Philippines – our hearts go out to you and your families.

– there was a conference in Germany this week re: Deaf folks and Place – hoping someone will put some of the good stuff in one place as following the tweets was hard but valuable. Im just greedy for the good stuff that is non-destructive and illuminating.

– holiday time now – lights of the menorah have been delightful. hope folks will take the time to write Felix Garcia a letter. He is a Latino Deaf man who has been in prison for decades for a crime his brother has since confessed to.

Send him a card folks. it doesn’t have to be a sonnet. If you want a note back – include a stamp.

there is more stuff that has passed my path but im in a hurry so for now enjoy all the typos as the spell check is off on this computer somhow and i havent had any time to proof read and ive misplaced my reading glasses and i can already feel my brain doing those brilliant dyslexia mix-ups.

ill try to tidy latter. but if u dont mind a neat mess – this is the place

It’s been on my mind cuz Ken Burns is making a documentary on the Central Park Five and i used to live in NYC at the time that the jogger was viciously attacked and young black boys were accused of wilding and worse and the justice system went unjust as it so often does with young disenfranchised Black males.

It has also been on my mind cuz my own father is struggling with his health and i keep doing that limbo dance of preparing myself for his departure which will rip my heart in two to make room for a new way of being with my dad and keeping a vigil over him – whispering that all will be well and he can stay a bit more. I love him so. just willing my way to accepting God’s will cuz this is my father’s chief wish. It aint easy though ; )

But the line reminds me muchly of my father because to me he too is “a good man” much like Atticus in To Kill a Mocking Bird.

And this morning it has lept to my mind because I have received an email that Betty G. Miller has passed away. And to this i say:

STAND UP, YOUR MOTHER’S PASSIN’.

I will myself to see her riding on the kindly carriage that Emily Dickinson wrote of – Waving and Beaming her big Betty smile at all of us. Just amazed at the wonders of the worlds and transition.

I’m telling meself that i hope she will get back to creating up there. she is a powerful being just simply powerful. one of those Most Influential People in my life and like some of them, someone i barely spent any time with in person. That is just how POWerful she is.

I adore her.

She is one of the most courageous souls i have ever met. I havent sung her praise often enuf or well enuf simply because i knew i could never do her justice. id try to b/vlog now and then about the Mother of De’VIA (Deaf View / Image Art – art about the Deaf experience) but every time i did, i would be besieged by emotion and just say “leave it.” And so i left it – incomplete – just a nod and a wink from time to time in honor of her birthday or in articles about her work but to tell u the whole of it – i dont think i ever will be able to because… well its not finished ; 0

in fact she is probably just getting warmed up – yes i see u Betty and i feel u. i know i know i know – these are the best of times and the worst of times but Betty – Dear Betty we are finding our feet and in many ways we are indebted to you. It was YOU who braved to buck against the mantra of only making happy happy Deaf art and were determined to put forth the TRUTH. As in truth force / soul force via your paintings, illustrations, and mixed media works.

it was you betty.

U rocked the viewers soul Betty. U still do.

Ok i gotta stop cuz im all tear-eyed. I might have to do a series or just “leave it.” Not sure where u want me to go and i imagine right now u r a bit busy getting settled in so we will see see. But know this. i thank THEE. u have been instrumental in the me of me and in so many beings.

Nancy Creighton, Betty’s long time partner, our hearts go out to you. I imagine how hard it was in these last few years to see Betty’s memory slipping from her. I will forever remember how she called you her “Memory Bank” and how she would look to you for added words or to jog her files to recall things and how you would look at her to make sure she was not over doing herself and just to send forth your great love for her. It was a huge honor to get to know you both a bit more during the Retrospective of Betty’s work at the Dyer Arts Center in 2008. Incredibly sorry for all of our losses now that this petite giant of an artist and human being has passed but most especially for your loss. I imagine it is huge and heavy and hard in places. Thank you for sharing Betty, her work and her heart, with all of us.

Betty – truly u rocked the house with all you have done as a teacher, advocate, artist, counselor. You have helped so many folks with your book – Deaf & Sober: Journeys Through Recovery and via your truth campaign.

Just yesterday i was envisioning the De’VIA 25h anniversary celebration in the Dyer Arts Center for Fall 2014 and i saw u in my mind’s eye sitting front and center beaming from ear to ear your wonderful betty smile lapping it all up.

We gonna save a seat for you miss betty. For sure.

but for now my dear readers –

STAND UP, our mother’s passin’.

color pix of me and betty with sad faces with betty’s hand on my arm in comfort and me with my hand on hers. i have no recollection of what we are being told by whom that made us so sad and no memory of who took this pix but its one of me all time fav pix. thank u to whomever snapped it. the pix was taken on the day that betty was to receive the Alice Cogswell award (2009) at Gallaudet. later on her way up to receive the award – she tripped and fell and bounced right back up to proclaim “i always FALL in love with Gallaudet” – wasnt she champ!